Update: Illinois Auxiliary Police and Illinois Police Reserves foney or real

Well the question has been raised back in 2010 and no one has heard jack crappie about it. But back in 2010 which was 5 years ago you read that In late 2010, an opinion by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan affirmed a state law that requires any auxiliary police to be state certified officers. Since then IPR was not state certified, its partnerships with suburban police departments went away and they stopped training new recruits.

After a four year break, a new class of recruits is beginning the organization's 300-hour law enforcement training in January 2015; training that is not approved by the state board responsible for certifying all law enforcement personnel in Illinois. Since then IPR's "appearance of authority" led to a state investigation four years ago and now the group is back on the radar of Illinois authorities.

Encounter a member of the IPR on the street and you'd think they were a police officer, but IPR Commander Joe Kulys says that's not the case.

"They wouldn't walk down the street and see one of our guys because our guys are not dressed in it," Kulys says. "The only time they dress up is for a parade."

But even dressing up as a police officer is deceptive, according to former federal prosecutor Jeff Cramer.

"The point of it is deception: the hat, the uniform, the patch the badge, the names, the commander. The point of this is to get people to believe you have the color of authority," Cramer says.

Cramer also points out that Illinois Police Reserves appears to be breaking this law by using "police" in the organization's name.

"That's why you can't use police or any of those nomenclature in your title, because it confuses the citizens," he says. "When that uniform looks like Chicago Police Department and you wear a badge that says police, now you've violated certain regulations and certain laws."

For decades, this group of armed volunteers offered back-up to suburban departments such as Cicero, Oak Lawn, Schiller Park and numerous other suburbs.

"We worked crowd control, emergent situations," Kulys says.

Five years ago, federal authorities began investigating non-government, legally unrecognized reserve police organizations.

Despite looking the part, Illinois Police Reserves members were never state-certified law enforcement officers, as are Chicago Police and sworn personnel of all other departments.

In late 2010, an opinion by Attorney General Lisa Madigan affirmed an Illinois law that requires any auxiliary police to be state certified officers. Since IPR was not state certified, its partnerships with suburban police departments went away and they stopped training new recruits.

After a four year break, this month a new class of recruits is beginning IPR's 300-hour law enforcement training; training that is not approved by the state board responsible for certifying all law enforcement personnel in Illinois.

Kulys' wears the title of "commander" at IPR, but he doesn't have a background in law enforcement. He's retired from the field of risk management.

From rigorous physical drills to hands-on police field training, Kulys says they offer a free public service, what amounts to a police prep course.

"They're trained," Kulys said. "They're not trained to do. As I said, we explain what law enforcement is and stuff like this. It's like a prep course. We do various courses, various things we give them preps on, but we don't certify them or nothing."

And these recruits, who Kulys says buy their own equipment and pay no fees, are here for one reason: to create a future for themselves in law enforcement.

Kulys tells us IPR wants to get back to doing more than marching in parades. He says he asked Attorney General Lisa Madigan at a 4th of July celebration how to make that happen.

"She said well, basically you can't do it now because of the law, so try to find a municipal partner of some sort," he says, "So that's what we are currently searching for."

The business is located at 2735 W. 71st Street Chicago which is 71st and Fairfield Rd. 

Governor Rauner to start selling unnecessary state property.

Executive Order 15-08 further instructs Central Management Services (CMS) to identify surplus property for auction in compliance with state law. Further, GOMB and CMS will review all property owned or leased by the state and develop a strategy for consolidation and relocation of offices.
Finally, the governor ordered all agencies to reduce energy consumption and spending on energy, including reducing heating, air conditioning, and lighting usage when facilities are not in use.
“Every dollar that we spend unnecessarily in government cannot be used to help our most vulnerable citizens,” Rauner added. “We must take every step necessary to ensure Illinois becomes the most compassionate and competitive state in the nation.”

James R. Thompson Center, architecturally significant to some and an emblem of bureaucratic government excess to others, would be sold and likely demolished to be rebuilt as a privately owned residential, office and retail space under a plan Gov. Bruce Rauner announced Tuesday.

Helmut Jahn's 17-story structure made its 1985 debut as the State of Illinois Building. Its $172 million price tag was more than double the original estimate. The center was renamed for former four-term governor James R. Thompson in 1992. ate law requires three appraisals be obtained if the property is worth $5,000 or more, according to the RFI. The average of the three, plus appraisal costs, determines the fair market value; the building couldn’t be sold for less than that amount.

The 17-story building cost $172 million to develop. Completed in 1985, it is named after James Thompson, the state’s longest-serving governor.

News stories in recent years have noted the building’s condition has deteriorated because the state lacks money for upkeep and repairs. Complaints include ripped and worn carpeting, water leaks and even a bedbug outbreak.

The building includes offices for the governor, the Illinois attorney general and the Illinois secretary of state, among others.

FBI News:

October 05, 2015

Southern District of Illinois
(618) 628-3700
Stephen R. Wigginton, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, announced today that Darnell Roy Baker, a.k.a. “Forty,” 26, of Chicago, Illinois, pled guilty today to charges returned against him by a Federal Grand Jury in November 2014. Specifically, Baker pled guilty to Conspiracy to Distribute Heroin from September 2012 through October 2014 in Marion County (Count 1), and four counts of Distribution of Heroin during June and July 2014, also in Marion County (Counts 2, 3, 4, and 6).

Count 1 carries a maximum penalty of not less than five years in federal prison, up to 40 years in prison, a $5 million fine, and at least four years’ supervised release. The remaining counts carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, a $1 million fine, and not less than three years’ supervised release. All counts require an assessment of $100.

According to court documents, Baker agreed with his co-defendants, Dominique Burwell, and Marquise Ross, to distribute heroin for profit in Centralia, Marion County, Illinois. Baker and the others shared a cell phone which customers would contact to order heroin. Burwell often answered the shared cell phone, took the order, and then sent Baker or Ross to complete the transaction with the customer at whatever location was agreed upon. In July, Burwell was convicted in the case. In August, Ross pleaded guilty in the case and is awaiting sentencing.

Information leading to the charges against Baker was obtained in an investigation conducted by the FBI, the Marion County Sheriff’s Office, and the Clinton County Sheriff’s Department. The case is being handled by Assistant United States Attorney Kit Morrissey.

City fucks small businesses with the new tax hike

It is a shame that small businesses have to feel the effects of tax hikes. How is it big business gets tax breaks but small business does not. Because big business is in bed with the politicians that's why.

At the Wieners Circle in Lincoln Park, Ari Levy is starting to fret about how to pay his portion of Mayor Rahm Emanuel's proposed $588 million hike in property taxes, the largest such increase in Chicago history.

The restaurant's total tax bill would climb about $3,197 after the increase is phased in over four years, equivalent to 750 sandwiches.

“That's a lot of hot dogs,” says Levy, who in August led a group of investors to buy the Clark Street eatery, known for raucous exchanges of insults between staff and customers. “Can you increase prices?”

Yet the Chicago investor, citing the city's perilous financial condition, says, “They have to do something.”

While business owners and real estate developers grumble about the massive tax hike, few are willing to publicly challenge the mayor's proposal. The muted response partly reflects City Hall's historic grip on the business community, which needs the mayor's blessing for even small moves. It also is an acknowledgment that Emanuel has few options as he scrambles to make up for long-overdue payments to the police and firefighter pension plans.

But the mayor's call to increase the tax break for homeowners has struck a nerve, reviving objections that commercial and industrial properties already pay a disproportionate share of property taxes.

Citywide, Emanuel's proposal would increase total tax bills by 13 percent, including levies by schools and other local governments. But he also is seeking to double the homeowner's exemption, to $14,000, which would reduce taxes for about 419,000 households.

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For properties that don't receive the homeowner's exemption, such as office buildings and warehouses, the total tax bill would rise as much as an additional 5 percentage points, according to Molly Poppe, a spokeswoman for the city's Office of Budget and Management.

An 18 percent increase means taxes on the office tower at 155 N. Wacker Drive would leap nearly $2.2 million, to more than $14.3 million, Crain's estimates. Taxes would shoot up to $12.44 a square foot from $10.54 at the nearly 1.2 million-square-foot building. That's the equivalent of nearly 5,500 hours of work for the consultancies and law firms that occupy the structure, assuming an hourly rate of $400.

Emanuel contends Chicago's economy, particularly the thriving downtown, can absorb the additional cost, but others are less sure.

“It is really hard to discern what impact that tax increase will have, given the advantages of having offices and hotels and apartments in the central business district, and retail,” says John Buck, chairman of the Chicago-based firm that developed 155 N. Wacker. “It is unfortunate that government has to do this, but it has to happen.”

On the South Side, taxes on the Ford Motor assembly plant would jump nearly $190,000, to more than $1.2 million. The increase is roughly equivalent to the retail price of six Explorer SUVs, which are made at the 2.8 million-square-foot facility. A Ford spokesman declines to comment.

Despite backing the tax hike, the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce and other business groups oppose increasing the homeowner's exemption, which would require state approval. Gov. Bruce Rauner has all but said he would veto such a measure.

Commercial and industrial properties account for 19.5 percent of the fair market value of all real estate in the city, according to Crain's analysis of data from the Cook County assessor. Yet those properties account for 38.7 percent of the taxes paid, according to the Cook County clerk's office, which calculates tax rates.

Nonetheless, the Emanuel administration defends asking business to pay a larger share.

“The necessary property tax increase for our police and fire pension funds should be borne by those who can best afford it and should not hurt middle- and lower-income families and seniors,” Poppe says.

The disparity is largely the result of a classification system, unique to Cook County, under which residential properties are taxed on 10 percent of their value, compared with 25 percent for business properties. Elsewhere in Illinois, all properties are taxed at a third of value. The Cook County system has been a gripe of business owners for decades.

The tax hike comes on top of a city ordinance, backed by Emanuel, which raised the minimum wage to $10 an hour in July, from the statewide figure of $8.25 an hour. The minimum goes up to $13 an hour by 2019.

“On a pure dollar basis, the labor cost increases are far more significant,” says Levy, who in addition to owning Wieners Circle is a director of fast-food chain Del Taco Restaurants in Lake Forest, Calif.

Narcotics found in stock of shotgun

A traffic stop for drunken driving led law enforcement to arrest a couple on a collection of charges after the man and woman openly discussed hidden contraband on police surveillance video.

Riverside police stopped Anthony X. Aranda, 25 of the 4000 block of Center Avenue in Lyons, at 2:09 a.m. Oct. 2 for driving erratically and speeding in the 2700 block of Harlem Avenue, police reported.

Aranda failed field sobriety tests, and he refused a portable breath test. He was arrested for drunken driving and put in the back of a police car.

The Riverside officer checked on the passenger, Imelda Marines, 25 of the 6900 block of West Pershing Road in Stickney, and found that she wasn’t sober and couldn’t drive the car. At the same time, Aranda was caught on the police car camera system talking to himself about how he needed to get home right away to get rid of drugs and weapons.

A record check showed Marines had two outstanding warrants for her arrest, according to Riverside police. One was for drunken driving and the other was for a traffic offense, both issued by the Cook County Sheriff’s Police Department.

Marines was arrested, and she openly stated on video surveillance while being taken to the police station that she hid methamphetamines inside her body cavity so police wouldn’t find them.

The officer learned of the drugs and weapons in the Lyons house and inside Marines at the police station when he reviewed the video. An officer searched Marines and found the drugs.

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Marines was charged with felony possession of a controlled substance, obstructing police, and she was processed under the two outstanding warrants.

Her criminal history includes narcotics possession and obstructing police.

Investigators searched the Center Avenue house in Lyons with a warrant, and they found a sawed-off shotgun, cocaine, cannabis and drug paraphernalia used for the manufacture and delivery of narcotics, according to Riverside police.

Police found the house was “deplorable,” and the home was boarded up and condemned after the search.

Aranda was charged with DUI, speeding, improper lane use, unlawful use of a weapon by a felon, possession of cocaine and cannabis, manufacture and delivery of cocaine, manufacture and delivery of cannabis and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Police say Aranda is a self-proclaimed and documented Ambrose gang member and a convicted felon. He has a history of weapons charges, drug charges and resisting police.

2016 Election

We are endorsing Sheriff Paul Babeu for congress.

3 individuals caught for robbery

Three men have been charged in an armed robbery that took place on a footpath at the Wolfe Wildlife area in Oak Lawn last Thursday.

Oak Lawn police responded to a delayed robbery that happened around 2:03 p.m. Oct. 1, when a man reported that he had been robbed at knifepoint while walking on the trail.

The man told police officers that he was approached by three male subjects who demanded his wallet and car keys. Police said that one of tne of the men was armed with a pocket knife, police said.

The next day, Oct. 2, Oak Lawn police received information that another person had just been robbed at a gas station south of 111th Street in Alsip. Oak Lawn police searched that area and found two individuals that matched the Alsip suspects, police said.oth men were taken into custody and released to Alsip police custody. During the investigation Oak Lawn detectives learned that the two men were suspects in the Alsip gas station robbery were involved in the robbery in Oak Lawn, according to the charges.

A third person was also identified, located and arrested on Oct. 2, police said.

Charged with felony armed robbery are Andre I. Mendoza, 18, of the 11300 block of Lamon Avenue, Alsip; Jacob F. Andres, 19, of the 5300 block of 109th Street, Oak Lawn; and Malik Adams, 19, of the 1900 block of North Long Avenue, Chicago.

All three men appeared for a bond hearing on Sunday at the George N. Leighton Criminal Courts Building at 26th and California.

Bail for Mendoza was set at $150,000, while bail for Andres and Adams was set at $90,000. Their next court appearance is Oct. 6 in Bridgeview.